Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

ZH-29 Semiauto Rifle at RIA

April 17, 2015 Ian McCollum 23

The ZH-29 was the brainchild of noted Czech arms designer Emmanuel Holek in the late 1920s. It was one of the earliest practical and reliable semiauto rifles available, although Holek and the Brno factory were […]

Burgess Folding Shotgun at RIA

April 16, 2015 Ian McCollum 15

Andrew Burgess was an extremely prolific gun designer who gets very little recognition today. One of has particularly interesting weapons was a pump-action, folding shotgun. Because Spencer already had a patent on the use of […]

Japanese Inagaki and Sugiura Pistols at RIA

April 15, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

The most common Japanese pistols used during World War II were the Type 14 and Type 94 Nambu designs, by a huge margin. However, there were a number of other handguns used in small numbers, […]

Schouboe .32ACP Pistol at RIA

April 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 11

Before he adapted it to .45 caliber for US Army pistol trials, Jens Schouboe was building his pistol design in .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning). It was a blowback action, hammer fired, and very quick and […]

Allen & Wheelock Lipfire Navy Revolver at RIA

April 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 12

Not all companies responded in the same way to the development of cartridge revolvers and the Rollin White patent. Allen & Wheelock, for example, decided to simply ignore the patent and make revolvers for their […]

A Selection of Chinese Mystery Pistols at RIA

April 12, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

During the 1920s and 1930s, a combination of civil wars and international arms embargoes led to a lot of domestic firearms production in China. The size and quality of manufacturing facilities varied widely – everything […]

Collected Works of John Pedersen

April 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 8

John Pedersen was one of the more prolific and successful gun designers in American history, having even been described by John Moses Browning as “the greatest gun designer in the world”. And yet, many people […]

Prototype Optic on an M1 at RIA

April 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 6

In the years after WWII, several countries experimented with general-use optical sights on service rifles. The Germans had pioneered the concept with the ZF-41 long eye relief optic during the war (and the ZF-4, to […]

North Korean Type 70 Pistol at RIA

April 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 87

The “Hermit Kingdom” of North Korea has a number of somewhat unusual military firearms that are not quite direct copies of anything else, but we very rarely get to see example of them up close. […]

PzB-39 German Anti-Tank Rifle at RIA

April 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 35

Most countries still had anti-tank rifles in their military inventory at the beginning of WWII – the Solothurn S18-100, the Lahti L39, the Boys AT Rifle, the PTRD and PTRS, and so on. For Germany, […]